Club drug Molly suspected in overdoses, deaths

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Two men suffered apparent overdoses of a club drug at a Boston concert Saturday, and a University of New Hampshire student died at a New York City music festival after apparently taking the drug, which is also suspected in a death Tuesday at Boston’s House of Blues.

New York City officials said the deaths of UNH student Olivia Rotondo, of North Providence, R.I., and a man from Rochester, N.Y., who both attended the Electric Zoo Music Festival appeared to be connected to the club drug MDMA, a pure form of ecstasy commonly called by the street name Molly.

In Boston Saturday night, ambulances separately transported three men from the Bank of America Pavilion in a period of about two and a half hours, Boston EMS spokesman Nick Martin said.

Two appeared to have overdosed on MDMA or another ecstasy-type drug, and another appeared to have taken a hallucinogen, State Police spokesman David Procopio said.

The weekend’s incidents came just days after the death early Wednesday morning of 19-year-old Brittany Flannigan, a native of Derry, N.H., who was about to begin her sophomore year at Plymouth State University.

Flannigan was one of three young people rushed to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center after the conclusion of a show by Zedd, an electronic music producer and disc jockey, at Boston’s House of Blues.